for the coming year i wish to learn the Dhamma in detail and will spend a few months in a monastery to establish a solid meditation practice .I hope to allow more compassion and kindness to arise continuously for friend and stranger alike .

wishing you all success, peace,and joy.

Remember: this life is short

Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.Aflame, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs ......Seeing thus, the disciple of the Noble One grows disenchanted. SN 35.28

Congratulations on giving up the intoxicants.And well done with giving up coffee. Its not really an intoxicant but I am sure you are feeling a lot more calm as a result of the reduction of caffeine in your system.I don't do resolutions but this past year I focused on lifestyle changes. This coming year I'll probably make some fine tuning to my lifestyle and continue to practice Dhamma.kind regards,

Ben

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.

Oh, well, I definitely am resolving to 1) meditate daily for at least 20 minutes, having now overcome the major medical hurdle that had interfered with my prior attempts at regular meditation. No sense in waiting until 2014 to get started, of course—I'm already three successful days in!

My next order of business will be... business. I've been out of work through this long transitory period and need to clear up this gap in my resume, network my way into the industry I'm interested in, and re-accumulate some savings (if I am indeed going to start the business I have my eyes on in the long-term). The resolution I think I have to make, however, is to resolve to 2) put the right effort into my research and interviewing. I've been hasty and overly optimistic in the past, hurriedly taking on work that supported organizations with questionable values, so I want to at least ensure that I build up my reputation and nest egg doing interim work that qualifies as samma-ajiva.

Lastly, although I haven't really figured how best to do it, I'd like to resolve to 3) bring my second languages back up to speed this year. I've maintained my French well enough by listening to local French-language public radio, but my Spanish and Portuguese are faltering after years of disuse. In fact, they've mixed together into a single language in my head that I can only call Portuñol.... I'd really like to find people or a project that will force me into a trial-by-fire scenario in these languages—that's what worked best for me in the past. Otherwise, a lot of books will have to be hit.

I've asked my family what they would change of me and the answer from all was smoking.

So I guess I shall quite smoking for the new year.

Unless someone offers me a cigarette as it would be rude to turn down a gift.

http://www.dhammawheel.com/chat/Unfettered at last, a traveling monk, I pass the old Zen barrier. Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life, Of these mountains, which shall be my home?Manan (1591-1654)

Taijitu wrote:I've asked my family what they would change of me and the answer from all was smoking.

So I guess I shall quite smoking for the new year.

Unless someone offers me a cigarette as it would be rude to turn down a gift.

do it for yourself, you have to want to give up smoking to succeed. and if you're willing to accept one when offered you're never going to overcome the cravings

good luck and a hve a happy2014

Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.Aflame, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs ......Seeing thus, the disciple of the Noble One grows disenchanted. SN 35.28

Taijitu wrote:I've asked my family what they would change of me and the answer from all was smoking.

So I guess I shall quite smoking for the new year.

Unless someone offers me a cigarette as it would be rude to turn down a gift.

Hi TaijituDo not feel guilty to turndown an offer for a smoke.

I stop taking alcohol for more than a year now.

I went to few Christmas Functions this year. I was the only person who did not drink alcohol.(except children)My friends try to tempt me with my favorite past time alcohols. Scotch and Coke, Moet Chandon etc. I just told them I have simply given up alcohols.

Are you really discussing about accepting or not a cigarret? Oh, my God. A cigarrete is something toxic. It's poison. It's unhealthy. A person who offers it to another is a... mmmm... a... mmm.... ok I'll say an ignorant.

That sounds like an idea. Perhaps I will only smoke if they put it in my mouth and light it for me.

http://www.dhammawheel.com/chat/Unfettered at last, a traveling monk, I pass the old Zen barrier. Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life, Of these mountains, which shall be my home?Manan (1591-1654)

When someone offers you a cigarette you could say,"Oh good, an offering for the gods" and then shred the cigarette and scatter it to the winds saying, "Oh spirits of the wind, better your lungs than mine." And then bow to the four directions. If you do this a couple of times it is likely that you will not be offered cigarettes at all.chownah

chownah wrote:When someone offers you a cigarette you could say,"Oh good, an offering for the gods" and then shred the cigarette and scatter it to the winds saying, "Oh spirits of the wind, better your lungs than mine." And then bow to the four directions. If you do this a couple of times it is likely that you will not be offered cigarettes at all.chownah

chownah wrote:When someone offers you a cigarette you could say,"Oh good, an offering for the gods" and then shred the cigarette and scatter it to the winds saying, "Oh spirits of the wind, better your lungs than mine." And then bow to the four directions. If you do this a couple of times it is likely that you will not be offered cigarettes at all.chownah

chownah wrote:When someone offers you a cigarette you could say,"Oh good, an offering for the gods" and then shred the cigarette and scatter it to the winds saying, "Oh spirits of the wind, better your lungs than mine." And then bow to the four directions. If you do this a couple of times it is likely that you will not be offered cigarettes at all.chownah

chownah wrote:When someone offers you a cigarette you could say,"Oh good, an offering for the gods" and then shred the cigarette and scatter it to the winds saying, "Oh spirits of the wind, better your lungs than mine." And then bow to the four directions. If you do this a couple of times it is likely that you will not be offered cigarettes at all.chownah

brillliant!

Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.Aflame, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs ......Seeing thus, the disciple of the Noble One grows disenchanted. SN 35.28

chownah wrote:When someone offers you a cigarette you could say,"Oh good, an offering for the gods" and then shred the cigarette and scatter it to the winds saying, "Oh spirits of the wind, better your lungs than mine." And then bow to the four directions. If you do this a couple of times it is likely that you will not be offered cigarettes at all.chownah

My friends would probably keep doing it for comedy value.

http://www.dhammawheel.com/chat/Unfettered at last, a traveling monk, I pass the old Zen barrier. Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life, Of these mountains, which shall be my home?Manan (1591-1654)